Innovative wind-powered water pumping for commercial irrigation and municipal water supply in the Middle East and Africa

1. Steve Drouilhet, CEO
Sustainable Power Systems
Alex DeBroe, CEO
XANT
WindWellTM
: Innovative Wind-Powered Water
Pumping for Commercial Irrigation and
Municipal Water Supply
in the Middle East and Africa

2. 2
Sustainable Power Systems, Inc.
Boulder, Colorado
Our mission: To reduce the cost and environmental impact
of electricity production using microgrids that optimally
combine renewable energy, conventional (fossil) energy,
energy storage, and load management technologies.
Our vision: To be a leading supplier of microgrid control
technology in a world that increasingly obtains its electric
energy from distributed renewable resources.

3. Universal Microgrid ControllerTM
(Power & Energy Management System)

Monitors and coordinates the operation of all
system components

Touchscreen local operator interface

On-board datalogging

Internet ready

A pre-engineered solution designed to
minimize the time and expense of microgrid
controls integration

4. SPS Deployments

5. Water Supply Challenges in Africa

Over 300 million people in Sub-Saharan
Africa lack access to reliable drinking
water sources

Many rely on surface water sources,
many of which are polluted:

Mining runoff

Agricultural fertilizer and pesticides

Poor sanitation

Deforestation and soil erosion

Disease Prevention and Economic
Development require access to clean
ground water supplies

“Energy-Water Nexus”: Accessing
ground require requires pumping,
which requires energy.

6. Water Pumping is a Perfect Application for
Renewable Energy

Storage allows decoupling the
supply from the demand.

Pumped water is an energy
storage medium

Water storage is less expensive
than equivalent battery capacity

Lasts much longer

Local materials with local labor

Pump according to how much
renewable energy is available

7. Hawaii Wind Powered Water Pumping System
Commissioned by SPS in 2013
Irrigation off-grid commercial plant
nursery
Replaces diesel water pumping
Conventional 100 kW grid-tied wind
turbine
Grid-forming battery-inverter system
200 meter well depth
70,000 gallon water tank
~ 200 gpm (46 m3/h) in 8 m/s wind

8. Wind Water Pumping System - AC Bus Architecture

9. Wind Water Pumping System - DC Bus Architecture

10. Advantages of DC Bus Architecture
●
Reduced capital cost
●
Eliminates 2 transformers
●
Eliminates 2 inverters
●
Reduces system complexity
●
Increases reliability
●
Increases system efficiency
●
Fewer power conversion steps
●
Reduced losses during low wind periods

11. Wind/PV Water Pumping System - DC Bus

12. Introducing the XANT M-24-DC Wind Turbine

Easy transport

Craneless installation

Hurricane proof

600-900 VDC bus voltage

User-settable output voltage
and current limits

13. Power Requirement and Water Productivity
 Total Head, HT
= hs
+ KQ2

Pumping Power (electrical)
Pe
= ρ g Q HT
/ (ηp
ηm
)
where
ρ = density
g = acceleration of gravity
Q = flow rate
ηp
= pump efficiency
ηm
= pump efficiency

14. System Performance Analysis
Water Production Depends on:

Well depth

Tank Elevation

Riser pipe diameter

Pump Characteristics (efficiency vs RPM vs H)

Wind speed distribution

Installed wind (and solar) capacity

15. System Design Methodology

Determine well depth and
approximate water need

Estimate pumping power
required.

Select pump and motor

Select renewable capacity

Select battery capacity

Model pump input power vs.
flow rate

Create overall system model

Model site-specific water
production

Iterate!

16. Sample Water Production Modeling Results

17. Summary

Water pumping is an ideal application for renewable energy.

SPS and XANT have developed a packaged wind-powered
water pumping solution specifically for off-grid municipal and
commercial applications

The power system's innovative architecture provides low cost
and complexity and high efficiency and reliability.

System performance estimation is complex but can be
simplified with a limited number of pre-engineered packages.